O’Melk woke up in the middle of the night. Something changed within him in the past few months. Once, he were the kind of guy who would go to sleep and would not wake up easily, no matter what happened. Next thing, he could not sleep more than a couple of hours in a row – as a matter of fact he could, he just would not do it for the sake of his sanity; it so happened that he learned to take short naps along the day, never dreaming. Latelly, however, his behavior was different: he split the day in 4 equanimous parts, meaning he felt the urge to sleep during two of this parts and they were always separated by moments where he had to put himself to some use.

He just was not bothered anymore, at the perspective of waking up around 4 am (this story is better told around 4 am; the time adds to the dramaticity of the situation), which just happened at that very near-summer dawn. It should have been one of his good ol’ waking, if not for that very peculiar dream.

(this tale only exists because O’Melk was an unconsiderate man: he did not mind, buzzing or e-mailing a friend was all the same to him, the only thing that truly mattered was to have the dream out of his system, in the open. He hated when a story was forgotten, that’s why he enjoyed practicing its telling)

Within those 4 hours of sleep, he dreamt about an old fashioned love – does anyone out there knows what it is like? –, the kind that spawns when one still is all too young and is, since then, carried like the lightest of burdens (and, nevertheless, a burden). He dreamt about her, and called me to tell me about it: -“I usually forget all about my dreamings in the morning and, to be honest, no matter how hard I fight against it I believe I still have some sort of connection to that remarkable girl, the one who held the strange ability of tattoing herself on men’s minds. What is it about her that is so appealing? Nevermind, listen to this… ”

He bragged, for the next 45 minutes,  about his historical achievements and how fate was kind to him. Of course I did not believe a thing about how lucky he had been: I was there, when it all happened,  during the school years and much, much after, when he finally got to be her boyfriend. But that is just a prequel to what he really wanted to talk about.

He dreamt he was in a, take a look at this, in a military casino, representing the government agency he worked for. Sitting in a big room, with papers spread in front of him, he was not surprised at her presence, by the door, staring at him. -“I was shocked I wasn’t surprised,” he told me, in a very gentle, delicate  manner. The fact that he expected her scared him, to his surprise: -“I thought I was through with this matter.”

There was a conversation, and she tried messing with him, trying to make him feel like the man he once was, 6 years ago. She could not know he had matured more than 10 years during the last 6, could she? He still was not the man he wish he was back them, when she left him for security, but that is just because he was never really happy about anything since… since she left him.

In his dreams, she tried to commit suicide, right in front of him. All sorts of feelings battered his head, making his heart pound like Pert’s drum. Her suicide attempt was a failure. Things happened too fast then, and he could not recollect the order anything took place; all he knew for certain is that at some point of his dream, he as looking at her through an open door, thought and said out loud: -“It doesn’t really matter what you did, what you ever do. You are and will always be loved by me. No matter what…”

Perhaps that is exactly what pushed her into her unsuccessful attempt; perhaps it was just the fact that he knew he was dreaming and would wake up in a few instants. We cannot be sure about it now and the fact remains: he spoke the truth. He wandered, trying to explain why all this happened, why this dream: was it the fact that her old house was for sale? Or perhaps because he found a recent picture of her, with her husband, over the internet? Maybe the fact that he was falling in love with this new, wondrous girl he had just met…

Who cares? It was just a dream he wanted to remember after waking up. It has now been passed on. That shall suffice for now.